Autumn sunlight promotes aboveground carbon loss in a temperate mixed forest

Li, Xingzhi, Wang, Yanan, Zhang, Juanjuan, Robson, Matthew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8631-796X , Kurokawa, Hiroko, Peng, Huan, Zhou, Li, Yu, Dapao, Deng, Jiaojiao and Wang, Qing-Wei (2024) Autumn sunlight promotes aboveground carbon loss in a temperate mixed forest. Ecological Processes, 13 (1). art. no. 48.

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Abstract

Background: Photodegradation of plant litter plays a pivotal role in the global carbon (C) cycle. In temperate forest ecosystems, the exposure of plant litter to solar radiation can be significantly altered by changes in autumn phenology and snow cover due to climatic change. How this will affect litter decomposition and nutrient dynamic interacting with forest canopy structure (understorey vs. gaps) is uncertain. In the present study, we conducted a field experiment using leaf litter of early-fall deciduous Betula platyphylla (Asian white birch) and late-fall deciduous Quercus mongolica (Mongolian oak) to explore the effect of change in autumn solar radiation on dynamics of litter decomposition in a gap and understorey of a temperate mixed forest.

Results: Exposure to the full-spectrum of not only significantly increased the loss of mass, C, and lignin, but also modified N loss through both immobilization and mineralization during the initial decomposition during autumn canopy opening, irrespective of canopy structure and litter species. These effects were mainly driven by the blue-green spectral region of sunlight. Short-term photodegradation by autumn solar radiation had a positive legacy effect on the later decomposition particularly in the forest gap, increasing mass loss by 16% and 19% for Asian white birch and Mongolia oak, respectively.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that earlier autumn leaf-fall phenology and/or later snow cover due to land-use or climate change would increase the exposure of plant organic matter to solar radiation, and accelerate ecosystem processes, C and nutrient cycling in temperate forest ecosystems. The study provides a reference for predictive research on carbon cycling under the background of global climate change.

Item Type:	Article
Journal / Publication Title:	Ecological Processes
Publisher:	SpringerOpen
ISSN:	2192-1709
Departments:	Institute of Science and Environment > Forestry and Conservation
Additional Information:	This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
Depositing User:	Insight Administrator
SWORD Depositor:	Insight Administrator
Date Deposited:	18 Jun 2024 15:29
Last Modified:	18 Jun 2024 15:30
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/7739

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